The model and the almost-fully-constructed set. More pictures from the production to come!
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The Real Thing
Design Dump: Attend the Tale…
I’m designing the set for the Spring Fling 2010 production of Sweeney Todd at Penn. Here’s the progression of SketchUp models so far, from unedited inklings to something close to the final thing. There will be more to come as the process of building unfolds.
Parts in the models I didn’t create (from Google 3D Warehouse):
Wall Sconce by Google
Bench by Shinnah
Chair by de Blac
Table by Acorn
Bed by anonymous
Posted in Design Dump
Tagged set design, SketchUp, Spring Fling, Sweeney Todd, theater
Tickle Me Typo
A search for a “laptop” on the Toys “R” Us website produces 439 results. Overwhelmed by these options, I decided to narrow the search to the 3-4 year old age bracket, which brought the count down to 21 PC-like toys. I find this markedly-reduced number no less disconcerting, however; there are 21 laptop products for customers who are, essentially, toddlers? It’s never to early to introduce another glowing rectangle into your child’s life…
The collection includes products like these:
This investigation into personal computing options for small children was precipitated by an article on Bits two days ago about the Fisher-Price iXL, an $80 iPad imitation — let’s call it the iPadlet — complete with apps, a touch screen, an SD-card slot and a USB port. Utter insanity. That it ‘opens like a book’ is an ironic slap-on-the-face for those dinosauric purists who might argue that such products represent yet another turn away from the bona fide book and the literacies it engenders.
Facebook’s Birthday Makeover
Yesterday was Facebook’s sixth birthday, and, as a gift to itself and all its friends, it has begun to rollout of a new design that anchors and organizes navigating power on a meatier left sidebar, features the search box up front and center, and streamlines the menu bar by removing most text and adding new icons. For a more detailed report of the changes, see PC World. The redesign has been met with criticism (Surprise!), but, as usual, once users get the hang of the new site the grievances will subside. According to TechCrunch, Facebook also plans to provide free e-mail service in the hopes of becoming the next big webmail provider. “Internally it’s known as Project Titan,” writes Michael Arrington, “Or, unofficially and perhaps over-enthusiastically, the Gmail killer.” Nothing like a birthday to prompt a makeover and the addition of a few lofty items to one’s lifelong to-do list! [Photo from Techie Buzz]
Posted in Brought to you by...
Moving Television Online
Tonight, The Wall Street Journal’s Ethan Smith reports on the big plans of a small start-up called Move Networks Inc. that hopes to bring television to the Internet. Unlike Hulu or YouTube, which offer a patchwork of content of mixed quality, Move has the technology to allow streaming of high quality, consolidated television content and would reintroduce the sort of planned watching that the Internet has discouraged. There are a few extra perks of the online experience, Smith writes, like being able to scroll backwards in time on the guide and watch shows after they’ve “aired,” a la DVR. Some of the financial backers of Move include media big-wigs like Comcast, Microsoft and Disney, but whether they’ll make deals to share content when the time comes is unclear/doubtful. If Move is successful, cable television and its infrastructure could be the latest technological fossils, resting in a dusty pile above landlines and VCRs. [Photo from Move Networks on WSJ.com]
Posted in Brought to you by...
Tagged cable, Hulu, Internet, Move Networks Inc., streaming, TV, YouTube
Vanity, Thy Name is Doppelgänger
If you haven’t been on Facebook lately, you might not know that this week (and last week, and next week…) is DOPPLEGÄNGER WEEK (from PCWorld).
During Doppelgänger Week, one changes his or her Facebook profile picture to the photograph of one’s celebrity look-alike, usually at the suggestion of friends (or the people on the street who mistook you for said celebrity) or, you know, if you do say so yourself. While a proliferation of Angelinas, Blake Livelys and Natalie Portmans is to be expected, one also comes across the occasional historical figure, cartoon, or animal. Most of us don’t look like famous people.
SketchUp: Sets and Spaces
Here’s a collection of SketchUp renderings of sets I designed for class (Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House) and a student theater production (Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds) during my freshman year at Penn. I’ve also included models I did of my dorm room and apartment from freshman and sophomore years respectively (because, you know, every incoming freshman does a scale model of his/her room). Lest this post risk seeming self-indulgent, I should note that I’m adding more design/modeling work (elementary as it may be) because the vast majority of hits to the site are coming from people looking for information about or pictures of set designs or SketchUp models.
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- Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Front View
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- A Doll’s House, backstage reveal
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- Freshman Dorm Room
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- The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Draft 1
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- The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Draft 2
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- The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Draft 3
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- Sophomore Year Apartment
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- Sophomore Year Apartment, view from outside/windows
iPaddling Upstream
Okay. I promised I’d tune back into the Apple tablet hubbub when the fateful day came. Well, today was the day, and, while I can’t break a promise, I’d like to state the obvious, aggregate a few opinions, and be done with it.
Responses to the announcement of the Apple iPad have been overwhelmingly negative (common crits: giant iPhone, awkward size, no camera…). It’s been picked apart by Gizmodo, its “under the hood” capabilities questioned by lalawag, and the Onion, ever the barometer of popular opinion, has implied that it’s as though Steve Jobs pulled an all-nighter and the iPad was the result. [For a view on the bright side, see the Apple iPad page].
David Pogue’s reaction has just been published on NYTimes.com, and, as usual, his appraisal is level-headed and he cautions us not to jump to conclusions. The iPad offers an incomparable reading/watching experience, perhaps at the expense of creating; it’s a “sack of potential” over which we should not hyperventilate.
So that’s that. Until I hold one in my hands, I’ll leave the opining to the techies.
Design Dump: Old School
These are renderings and models I did in high school (when my media were simply paper and glue), as well as photographs of the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that I designed for my high school senior project (after the ‘more’ button). The play was supposed to be performed outside but, in true Boston form, it rained the entire week leading up to and during the performances. We relocated to the gym and created a stage space with the backs of bleachers, used flood lights from Home Depot (the voltage of the theater lights was too high for the gym’s electrical system) and borrowed a strip of turf from the baseball team’s batting cage. It all turned out just fine.
Posted in Design Dump
Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, ground plan, Lysistrata, model, rendering, set design, theater
